Eugenia Shaw is a Healthy Hair Consultant, Aromatherapist, Beauty Therapist and Tutor. She has been in the beauty and hairdressing industries for over 15 years now and absolutely loves what she does. 

The Brand: Naturally Whole specialises in the health of the scalp and hair. In the salon ‘The Healthy Hair Clinic’, they help people on their hair journeys for healthier scalp and hair. This journey started for Eugenia when at the age of 5, her daughter lost a third of her hair and the doctors couldn’t do anything about it.

Challenges of Building The Business and Navigating Through Them.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was protecting my intellectual property.  As I am the formulator of my products I wanted to make sure that as I was developing my business I did not put my intellectual property at risk.  That problem was solved for me when I happened upon The British Library Business and IP Centre.  I went there for another event and discovered the centre.   The centre helped me gain all the knowledge I needed on how to make sure my IP was protected moving forward. 

Another challenge I faced was learning how to run my website.  I am creative, so dealing with technology doesn’t come easy to me.  I found a website builder that is very good at what he does but was also calm and considerate, and most importantly he believed in what I was doing. I knew that I wanted to work with someone who would have the patience in dealing with a complete novice. 

When the people you work with believe in what you are doing they are more willing to offer you their skills.  Also, really important, you have to be teachable.  Open your mind to the knowledge that this person knows more than you in this field, that is why you are going to them in the first place. 

Another challenge I faced was more of a personal one, imposter syndrome, constantly asking myself who am I to do this, in this already vast field.  I overcame that by having my own specific goals that I wanted to achieve and still want to achieve and sticking to them.  And I broke my goals down into small manageable actionable steps, and congratulated myself each time one of those steps were completed, then went back and started again on the next small manageable actionable step for the goal.

Advice to startups.

For anyone starting out in the hair products industry make sure your product is authentic and it is something you are passionate about.